Category: Allgemein

Vappu in Finland is the traditional worker’s day and welcoming spring celebration or so I have been told. What I actually saw on the eve of the first of May last year was a huge student (including former and future students) party in the city center. Everybody who was out there that night (and there were thousands) – young and old, Finns and foreigners, students and workers – seemed to only have one goal: getting drunk. And I don’t just…

When was the last time you had a good water fight? I bet it has been ages ago, at least mine I could hardly remember – until we happened to be in Thailand for the Songkran Festival. Towards the end of our 6 months stay in Thailand everybody started talking about the Songkran Festival. I had never heard of it before and in general I’m not a big festival fan so I did not get very excited about it even…

As promised already last year when writing the first part of my ‘living the dream’ story about the year 2014 which was full of travels and adventures here comes the second part, a review of my first year in Finland. 2015 – living the dream (part II) In 2015, I was living another dream, the dream of being an expat. Half of my life I was carrying around this longing for living in another country, experiencing a new culture, and…

A few weeks ago I finally got to travel again! This time to Savonlinna in the Finnish East. I had heard a lot about this area before as being especially beautiful and different from other parts of the country. The conveniences of Finnish trains The fact that I was going there by train topped my excitement about this trip. Have I mentioned before that I love train rides? Well, I do. Especially in Finland. Finnish trains are very convenient and…

Since I live here I have discovered and heard of many interesting and funny facts about Finland and its people. With this post I would like to share some of them with you! Did you know that… … one and two cent coins are not used in Finland? Although officially available, one and two cent coins are not used and shops are not obliged to accept them. Individual prices are still shown but cash payments are rounded to the nearest…

Welcome to part III of my life in Finland series: In Finnish, March is Maaliskuu which comes from ‘maallinen kuu‘ – earthly month. It refers to the end of winter when the snow starts to melt and slowly the ground becomes visible again. However, for us, the earthly month still contained a lot of snow since we headed towards Lapland to take part in the Northern-most obstacle race in the world – the Arctic Tough Viking. The world’s Northern-most obstacle…

About Odysseys of a Nomad

Hi, I’m Carina – German by law, Finnish by choice, Nomadic by heart. On Odysseys of a Nomad I write about my expat life in Finland combined with past and future travel tales. Enjoy reading and happy travelling!